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ACT AND BULL. 



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ACT AND BULL; 



Fixed Anniversaries — a Paper submitted to the Numismatic 
and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, Nov. 4, 1880, by 
Leivis A. Scott, with an Appendix containing the Bull of 
Gregory J^III., translated, and the body of the Act of Par- 
liament. 

A doubt having been expressed by the learned President of 
the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, at a meeting of the 
Society, as to what would be the true anniversary, in 1882, of 
Nov. 8 (Old Style), 1682, the date assigned by Mr. Myer to 
the first landing of William Penn at Philadelphia, the writer 
of the present paper was requested by the President to look at 
the Act of the British Parliament by which the "New Style" 
was adopted. This easy task was cheerfully performed, and a 
report was made to the Society that the Act contained no clause 
expressly regulating anniversaries in terms which would cover 
the one under consideration. The practice, in similar cases, 
was found to be, so far as examined, conflicting, and changing ; 
and it was perceived that an explanation of this might be found 
in the adoption by different persons of different modes of ascer- 
taining similar anniversaries. These views, as applied to the 
particular instance in hand, were thrown into the form of a 
resolution, which is now before the Society, and is as follows, 
viz.: — 

" Whereas, It has been suggested that, in view of the change 
of the legal calendar in 1752, and of apparently varying prac- 
tice, doubts may be entertained as to which is the most proper 
of the following methods of ascertaining the bi-centennial an- 
niversary of Perm's arrival at Philadelphia, in the fall of 1682, 
viz. : — 

" 1st Method. — By adopting, as the bi-centennial anniversary, 
that natural day of 1882 which will, by the 'New Style,' bear 
the same name (by way of month and day of the month) as the 
natural and actual day of Penn's arrival at Philadelphia, in the 
fall of 1682, bore, according to the ' Old Style,' in 1682 (by 
way of month and day of the month). 

« Thus :— 

Penn's arrival, 1682, say Nov. 8th, 0. S. 
Anniversary, 1882, Nov. 8th, N. S. 



"2d Method. — By changing the 0. S. name (by way of month 
and day of the month), borne, in 1682, by the natural and 
actual day of Penn's arrival at Philadelphia, in the fall of 1682, 
to the N. S. name (by way of month and day of the month) 
which it would at that time, 1682, have borne according to N. 
S. — making the change by omitting ten 0. S. names of days, 
including the day in question ; — then carrying down the anni- 
versary, by the plan of 'New Style/ to 1882; and adopting, 
as the bi-centennial anniversary, the day of 'New Style,' of 
1882, so found or arrived at, namely, that natural day, of 1882, 
which will bear, in 1882 (by way of month and day of the 
month), the same ,N. S. name as the N. S. name, in 1682, of 
the natural and actual day of Penn's arrival, in the fall of 1682. 

" Thus :— 

Penn's arrival, 1682, say Nov. 8th, 0. S. 
Call it, by N. S., 1682, Nov. 18th, N. S. 
Anniversary, 1882, Nov. 18th, N. S. 

" 3d Method. — By carrying down the anniversary, on the plan 
of 'Old Style,' to 1752, when the change of legal style took 
effect in England ; then changing the name of the ' Old Style ' 
anniversary of that year, 1752, to the 'New Style' name — 
by omitting eleven 'Old Style' names of days, including the 
day in question — and, finally, carrying the N. S. anniversary 
of 1752, thus obtained, down to 1882, by the plan of ' New 
Style,' and adopting, as the bi-centennial anniversary, the day 
of 'New Stvle,' 1882, so found or arrived at. 

"Thus:— 

Penn's arrival, 1682, say Nov. 8th, 0. S. 
0. S. anniversary, 1752, Nov. 8th, 0. S. 
Call it, by N. S., 1752, Nov. 19th, N. S. 
Anniversary, 1882, Nov. 19th, N. S. 

" 4:th Method. — By carrying down the anniversary, on the 
plan of ' Old Style,' to the year 1882 ; then changing the 
0. S. name, borne (by way of month and day of the month) by 
the 0. S. anniversary of that year, 1882, to the •' New Stylo ' 
name (by way of month and day of the month), — by omitting 
twelve 'Old Style' names of days, including the day in ques- 
tion, — and adopting, as the bi-centennial anniversary, the day, 
of 'New Style,' so found or arrived at. 

« Thus :— 

Penn's arrival, 1682, say Nov. 8th, 0. S. 
0. S. anniversary, 1882, Nov. 8th, 0. S. 

Call it, by N. S., 1882, Nov. 20th, N. S. 

" Therefore, Resolved, That the method above-men- 

tioned is the most proper, of the four, for computing the anni- 



versary of Perm's arrival at Philadelphia, which anniversary 
ought to be considered as happening on the day of 

1882." 



Upon this resolution it may be remarked that, although other 
possible methods of computation might be suggested, it yet 
does in fact include all that are likely to be considered with 
any favor. No one of the four methods proposed is without 
some example, in practice, of the use of its principle. 

An anniversary is defined to be a yearly return of a mem- 
orable day ; and in popular speech the meaning of the word is 
extended to include any day kept as an anniversary. The 
latter signification has the sanction of some encyclopedists ; 
but the more precise or restricted idea is the one which evoked 
the doubt, and is that which is chiefly in view in this paper. 

Both "Old Style" and "New Style" were in use on the 
shores of the Delaware long before Penn's arrival. Proof is 
to be found in the pages of Hazard's Annals. Holland had 
adopted the New Style in 1582 ; Sweden still adhered to the 
Old. The date in question, November 8th, 1682, is an Old 
Style date, derived from certain old records, or entries, or 
letters; and it may be assumed as typical of other similar dates. 

There does not appear to be any legislation in Pennsylvania 
decisive of the question, or furnishing analogies to help us to 
a solution. The Act of Assembly of March 11, 1752, while 
recognizing the Act of Parliament which adopted the New 
Style (and was passed in the preceding year), so far as relates 
to the change of the beginning of the year, and to the dates 
of writings, merely affirms the legality of the "Friends'" man- 
ner of dating by naming the months "First month," " Second 
month," &c, instead of January, February, &c. There had 
been previous acts relating to names of the months, and of the 
days of the week, one of which this law repealed. Another 
was repealed in Council. 

The Yearly Meeting of Friends for Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey adopted, on September 18 (0. S.), 1751, a minute con- 
curring with a minute of the London Yearly Meeting, to the 
effect that Friends should thereafter reckon January the first 
month of the year, and should style it " First month," &c, and 
that they should omit the eleven days next after September 2 
(0. S.), 1752, in conformity with the Act of Parliament. And 
the next Yearly Meeting was appointed to be held on Novem- 
ber 24 (New Style), 1753. Mr. Bonsall gives the minute in full 
at page 400 of vol. 2 of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History. 

The Act of Parliament, though not found in the Report of 



the Judges, is, no doubt, at least in its leading features, in force 
in this State. Every Pennsylvanian who dates a letter, acts 
under it, or, what is the same thing, under a usage settled and 
ascertained by its provisions. Some parts of it are, equally 
without doubt, not law here. We have never had an Estab- 
lished Church ; nor Courts incident to Fairs ; nor Conservators 
of the Great Level of the Fens. 

It is not to be denied that noon of November 8 (Old Style), 
1882, is the identical moment which by the New Style is called 
noon of November 20, 1882 ; and, in the same way, November 
8 (0. S.), of 1752, was the identical day called by New Style 
November 19, 1752; and November 8 (0. S.), 1682, was 
November 18 (N. S.), 1682 ; the difference between the styles 
increasing by one day on the first of March (N. S.) in each of 
the two centesimal New Style years, 1700 and 1800. Who- 
ever would deny this would make the same kind of a mistake 
as even a very learned man might make in performing an arith- 
metical division. It is matter of easy demonstration from data 
supplied by the Act of Parliament. But the question proposed 
by the resolution is different in its nature, and requires, for its 
solution, the exercise of the judgment; so that persons may 
very well differ about it, without being open to the charge of 
carelessness or error. Of course a similar question arises in 
computing many other anniversaries. 

A principle underlying not only the Act of Parliament, but 
also the Bull of Pope Gregory XIII. , by which the New Style 
was first promulgated in 1582, is, that in cases of annually 
recurring fixed days, not involving rights of property, the same 
nominal days should be retained (that is, — let us say it once for 
all, — the days bearing the same New Style names as the re- 
spective days bore by the Old Style) ; but that whenever prop- 
erty interests, then already existing, would be affected by that 
course, or were likely to be affected by it, the recurrence of the 
fixed day should be settled as if the Act had not been passed. 
The Act seeks to carry out this principle by a mass of provisions 
for particular classes of cases. The casus omissi soon appeared. 
A remarkable omission was cured by a supplement providing 
for corporate annual acts required to be done on any of the 
eleven dropped Old Style days between September 2 (O. S.), 
1752, and September 14 (N. S.), 1752 ; which acts the supple- 
ment ordered to be performed, for that year only, as if the prin- 
cipal law had not been passed ; thus furnishing an analogy for 
any historical anniversary occurring on any of those days of 
that year, and an answer to some who have asked how it would 
have been with such an anniversary in 1752. No such omis- 
sion is to be found in the Papal Bull ; which, for the year 1582 



only, assigns to other days tbe fixed religious anniversaries oc- 
curring on any of the identical ten days then omitted.* 

This paper ought to close with this statement of the theory 
of the Act and Bull, — a theory deduced from the very instru- 
ments as published, — and with the observation that the anni- 
versary of the landing is within the reason of the provisions by 
which a multitude of annual fixed days, not involving property 
interests, are made to retain their old places in the calendar. 
But with a view of inviting further consideration and papers by 
others, some details will now be entered upon. 

Both Act and Bull furnish abundant sound analogy in favor 
of the first method proposed by the resolution ; none in favor of 
any of the other methods. The days ordered by the Act to be 
observed on the same nominal days, are mainly as follows, viz. : — 

1st. All fixed feast days, holy days, and fast days kept in the 
Church of England. 

2d. All solemn days of thanksgiving, and of fasting and 
humiliation, established by Act of Parliament. 

3d. All fixed days for meetings of bodies politic and corporate. 

4th. All fixed days for holding courts, except some courts 
held with fairs, f 

* It appears by the almanac-like provision, in this part of the Bull, for 
the eighteenth Sunday after the movable feast of Pentecost, that the new 
assignment of these days was for that year only. 

The Sunday letter for 1582 was, after the change, the same as for the 
latter part of the present year, 1880, viz , C. Compare the fixed days pro- 
vided for in this part of the Bull with the corresponding part of a Catholic 
Almanac for 1880. 

f Chesterfield, who introduced the bill in the House of Lords, speaks of 
it in his letters to his son, as " composed of law jargon and astronomical 
calculations." His account of the affair is most amusing. Under date of 
February 28 (0. S.), 1751, he says, "I have of late been a sort of astronome 
malgre moi" — (here he at once excites the liveliest sympathies of the writer 
of this paper) — "by bringing last Monday into the House of Lords a bill 
for reforming our present calendar, and taking the new style : upon which 
occasion I was obliged to talk some astronomical jargon, of which I did 
not understand one word, but got it by heart, and spoke it by rote, from a 
master. I wished that I had known a little more of it myself; and so much 
I would have you know." 

And on March 18 (0. S ), he writes : " I will now give you a more par- 
ticular account of that affair ; from which reflections will naturally occur 
to 3'ou, that I hope may be useful, and which I fear you have not made. 
It was notorious, that the Julian calendar was erroneous, and had over- 
charged the solar year with eleven days. Pone Gregory the 13th corrected 
this error ; his reformed calendar was immediately received by all the 
Catholic powers of Europe, and afterwards adopted by all the Protestant 
ones, except Russia, Sweden, and England. It was not in my opinion very 
honorable for England to remain in a gross and avowed error, especially 
in such company; the inconveniency of it was likewise felt by all those 
who had foreign correspondence, whether political or mercantile. I deter- 
mined, therefore, to attempt the reformation ; I consulted the best lawyers, 



Of the 1st and 2d of these classes, the calendar attached to 
the Act gives 97, most of them of a religious character ; and 
of these the Protestant Episcopal Church of our own country 
has retained 24. 

The Papal Bull did not disturb the fixed religious days from 
their old accustomed positions in the calendar. Under it they 
continue on the same nominal days. Blondel, a Frenchman, 
writing in 1682, gives a Gregorian calendar containing 1. 6 

and the most skillful astronomers, and we cooked up a bill for that pur- 
pose. But then my difficulty began : I was to bring in this bill, which was 
necessarily composed of law jargon and astronomical calculations, to both 
which T am an utter stranger. However, it was absolutely necessary to 
make the House of Lards think that I knew something of the matter ; and 
also, to make them believe they knew something of it themselves, which 
they do not. For my own part, I could just as soon have talked Celtic 
or Sclavonian to them, as astronomy, and they would have understood me 
full as well ; so I resolved to do better than speak to the purpose, and to 
please instead of informing them. I gave them, therefore, only an histor- 
ical account of calendars, from the Egyptian down to the Gregorian, amus- 
ing them now and then with little episodes ; but 1 was particularly attentive 
to the choice of my words, to the harmony and roundness of my periods, 
to my elocution, to my action. This succeeded, and ever will succeed; 
they thought I informed, because I pleased them ; and many of them said, 
that I had made the w r hole very clear to them ; when, God knows, 1 had 
not even attempted it. Lord Macclesfield, who had the greatest share in 
forming the bill, and who is one of the greatest mathematicians and astron- 
omers in Europe, spoke afterwards with infinite knowledge, and all the 
clearness that so intricate a matter could admit of; but, as his words, his 
periods, and his utterance, were not near so good as mine, the preference 
was most unanimously, though most unjustly, given to me." 

Lord Macclesfield in his speech gives some further particulars. He says, 
" The nextthing proposed by this bill is the correction of the calendar, and 
this in "tWa respects : first with regard to the civil year, by which the times 
of our fixed festivals, and the dates of all our transactions, are determined ; 
and, secondly, in relation to the method which we make use of to find the 
time of Easter, and of the movable feasts thereon depending. * * * 

" The three last clauses of the Bill are designed merely for the protection 
of private property, from the injury which it might otherwise receive by 
the proposed change of the style. 

" This could hardly have been effected any other way than by the pro- 
visions made in this Bill ; which directs, that all things of a more indiffer- 
ent nature shall be transacted on the nominal days; but that all matters 
which may affect private property shall not be accelerated ; but shall be 
transacted or take place upon the very same natural days as they would 
have been, or would have done, if this change in the style had not been 
made. 

"For had the payments of rent and other sums of money, and the per- 
formance of other acts stipulated for by contracts in being before the 
change of the style shall take place, been in general accelerated and 
brought forward with the nominal days : so great a variety of discounts, 
abatements, and allowances would necessarily have been established by 
the Bill, as might have been attended with more difficulties and greater 
inconveniences than those who have not thoroughly considered this mat- 
ter may be aware of. 

" And if any one particular case should be excepted out of the three last 
clauses, or any of them ; there is too much reason to fear, that it would be 



fixed days, of which 56 are to be found in the calendar attached 
to the Act of Parliament. Blondel gives an engraving, de- 
scription, and explanation, of a medal issued by Gregory in 
honor of his achievement. The Spaniard Ribadeneyra, about 
1669, gives 113 fixed days. The aggregate number of fixed 
days known to the Roman Catholic Church, in different places, 
was probably very considerable. A study of various martyr- 
ologies might throw further light on this point, if neces- 
sary. 

Now these fixed days of feasts, &c, constitute a large array 
of instances. Most of them are, strictly, anniversaries; were 
formerly observed on certain Old Style dates, and are now 
regarded as occurring on the same nominal days. That they 
are, for the most part, religious anniversaries, makes them 
none the worse for our purpose. The "denominations" to 
which they are, for that reason, all the more interesting, em- 
brace vast numbers of persons. And if we seek the great 
moving motive of the change of style by the Papacy, we shall 
find it to be, in kind, religious or ecclesiastical. This appears, 
indeed, in the Bull itself. The Old Style answered very well 
for the civil business of life: the planting, trading, spinning, 
fighting ; but the proper ascertainment of the day for the 
movable feast of Easter, and others depending on it, had 
always, from the earliest ages, been considered of great import- 
ance in the Christian Church, and had given rise to very 



productive of so many other exceptions as might greatly frustrate the good 
intentions of the Bill. 

" And it is no small justification of the last general proviso, that it 
appears by authentic copies and extracts of edicts and placards, which the 
noble lord who brought in this Bill procured from abroad, that the same 
method was pursued, in this respect, when France, Brabant, Holland, and 
Zealand, laid aside the old, and received the new style. " :< " * * 

" I believe I need not tell your lordships, that the first design of the Bill 
was formed by the noble earl who presented it to the House ; and whose 
sagacity to discern, does not exceed his inclination to redress, any incon- 
veniences which his fellow-subjects may labor under. 

" The Bill was, under his lordship's directions, drawn, and most of the 
tables prepared, by Mr. Duvall, a barrister of the Middle Temple, whose 
skill in astronomy, as well as in his profession, rendered him extremely 
capable of accurately performing that work ; which was likewise carefully 
examined, and approved of, by two gentlemen, whose learning and abilities 
are so well known, that nothing which I can say can add to their charac- 
ters ; I mean Mr. Folkes, president of the Royal Society, and Dr. Bradley, 
his majesty's astronomer at Greenwich ; the latter of whom did himself 
compose the three general tables, which your lordships find towards the 
end of the printed copy. Upon this authority do the new tables and rules 
stand : and as to the Hill itself, no endeavors have been wanting to make it 
as complete, and as free. from objections of all kinds, as possible." 

The Bill passed the House of Lords without any debate except the 
speeches of Chesterfield and Macclesfield. 



serious controversies. Moreover,- some of them are not now 
considered as religious ; such as the anniversaries of the Gun- 
powder Plot (Nov. 5, 0. S.), the Execution of Charles L, and 
the Restoration of Charles II. All three events occurred 
in the 17th century, and the days were established as solemn 
by Acts of Parliament, and are mentioned in the calen- 
dar and tables annexed to the Act. The appointed services 
were continued in England on the same nominal days till 1859. 
The Gunpowder Plot day was observed at Taunton, Massachu- 
setts, as late as Nov. 5 (N. S.), 1775.* Christmas, also, is an 
anniversary as much popular as religious in its observance, and 
was kept on the 25th of December for many centuries before 
the change of style. 

With regard to the annual fixed days for meetings of bodies 
politic or corporate, and for courts, their number is uncertain, 
but certainly large. They were, probably, and generally, 
meetings for business purposes only, but they possess, very 
distinctly, the feature of annual recurrence. And is not every 
day memorable, which any one may choose to consider so? 

The analogy of all the above-mentioned kinds of annual 
fixed days is controlling, in favor of the same nominal day as 
the anniversary. Why should we depart from the spirit of 
the change of style as exhibited in them ? 

It is true that the Act of Parliament regulates several other 
classes of annual fixed days by providing that they shall* be 
considered to recur on the same natural days, (that is — once 
for all — on the same natural day as if the Act had not been 
passed). But all of these classes will be recognized by law- 
yers as involving, or likely to involve, property interests then 
already existing : for instance, fixed days for the payment of 
then-existing rents. Another instance of this kind is to be 
found in the birthdays of persons born before the change of 
style, as to which it is declared by the fifth section, in " law 
jargon," that the Act shall not accelerate the time of such 
persons attaining the age of twenty-one, or any other age 
requisite for any purpose whatever, and that no such person 
shall be deemed to have attained any such age until the full 
number of years and days should be elapsed on which such 



* Oration by S. Breck before N. Eng. Soc. of Phila., Dec. 21, 1844, Intro. 
p. 5. The Acts of Parliament are, — for the Gunpowder Plot, 3 Jas. 1, c. 1, 
A. D. 1605 ; for the Execution of Charles 1, 12 Chs. 2, c. 30. sect. 1, A. D. 
1660; for the Restoration, 12 Chs. 2, c. 14, A D. 1660. The repeal was by 
the 22 Vict. c. 2, A. D. 1859. The Act 19 Chs. 2, c. 3, sects. 28 and 29, 
A. D. 1667, establishes Sept. 2, as the anniversary of the Great Fire of Lon- 
don in the preceding year, and orders the erection of the pillar objurgated 
by the poet. 



person would have attained such age in case the Act had not 
been passed. The observance on 22d February (N. S.) of 
Washington's birthday is properly to be explained under this 
clause. He was born in Virginia, Feb. 11 (0. S.), before 
the passage of the Act, and his birthdays, after it took effect, 
continued to be (if no Virginia law prevented) on the same 
natural days as if the Act did not exist; that is to say, on 
Feb. 11 (0. S.) of each successive old-style year, which suc- 
cessive birthdays were called, in the nomenclature of new 
style, Feb. 22, until his death in December, 1799. And so 
the Legislature of Pennsylvania were right in establishing 
Feb. 22 (N. S.) as the proper day to be observed. If Wash- 
ington had survived two years longer, his birthday, in the (N. 
S.) year 1801, would still have occurred, according to the 
clause just now mentioned, on Feb. 11 (0. S.), 1800, just as 
if there were no Act, which identical day is, not Feb. 22 (N. 
S.), 1801, but Feb. 23 (N. S.), 1801; or, to use double dating, 
his birthday would have happened on Feb. JJ, 1800-1801 — 
the change, from eleven days difference between the styles, to 
twelve days difference, having taken place on ^-^, 1799-1800, 
after the last preceding birthday. 

These birthdays, fixed rent days, &c, furnish no sound anal- 
ogy for our guidance ; for, as already intimated, they are in- 
troduced into the Act merely to prevent interference with then 
existing material interests, with vested rights, or the obligation 
of contracts. The Roman Bull skillfully seeks to accomplish 
the same end, in widely different communities, by a brief sec- 
tion (the 8th) declaring that, to prevent injury, it should be the 
duty of all judges, in controversies arising upon "guaranties" 
(proestationes), to take into account the omitted days by adding 
ten other days at the expiration of the "guaranty." This of 
course was not designed to interfere with legislation made by 
any government to suit the details of its own institutions. 
Arrangements of this kind will finally cease to be effective, 
with the cessation of the material interests protected by them. 
If any fair analogy could be drawn from such classes of days, 
it would be in favor of the 4th method proposed by the resolu- 
tion. , 

The truth is, that to adopt either the 3d or 4th method would 
be to reject the correction applied by the Act to the calendar. 
This is most readily seen in the 4th method, by which the old 
style is retained till 1882, and no more is done than to call the 
8th of November (O. S.), 1882, by another name. By this 
method, no calendar year or month is shortened from 1682 to 
1882. It is thus on the same footing with the birthdays, fixed 
rent days, &c, which recur as if there was no Act. No omis- 



10 

sion of 11 days, from the calendar, is made, nor is any correc- 
tion applied, except to the name of the day. But this was 
not the whole of the correction given by the Act, which short- 
ens the calendar month of September, 1752, by eleven days. 
Here we have to recollect the true meaning of the word cal- 
endar, which is concrete, not abstract; it is a document, a 
printed or written list of the days of the year, with proper 
feasts, &c. The shortening, or correcting, is effected by erasing 
from this calendar the names of 11 specified days in September, 
1752, and for that year only ; the consequence of doing which, 
is, that in all subsequent time every succeeding calendar day, 
of the newly corrected computation and calendar, happens 11 
days sooner in the scale of actual time than it otherwise would. 
This is expressed in the Act (sects. 1, 3, 4), is plainly to be 
seen in the almanac for 1752, and is the consequence, and real 
correction, which is evaded by the 4th method. There is the 
same objection to the 3d method, one step of which takes us 
to a faulty anniversary for 1752, by the same faulty mode, 
which in the same way rejects the true correction applied by 
the Act. 

The 1st method, on the contrary, preserves the correction of 
1752, by which, in all the future, the same nominal days of 
new style are made to happen eleven days earlier in the march 
of actual time than if no such correction were used. 

The principle of the 2d method is to change the name of 
the old style date of the event, to its new style name. This 
method seems not to be open to the criticism that it ignores 
the true correction, and it alone, of all four, brings into view 
the fact that there was already a new style, which had been 
instituted by the Pope. And before closing, a few words will 
be added concerning this method. 

In 1850 a committee was appointed by the Pilgrim Society, 
at Plymouth, to consider whether " Forefathers' Day," of Mas- 
sachusetts, Dec. 11 (0. S.), 1620, should be celebrated on Dec. 
21 (N. S.) or on Dec. 22 (N. S.). The 21st is reached by the 
2d method of the resolution, the 22d by the 3d method. The 
committee had before them only these two days, and reported 
in favor of Dec. 21. Dec. 11, reached by the 1st method, was 
not submitted to their consideration. The report is appended 
to the " Proceedings at the celebration by the Pilgrim Society, 
at Plymouth, Dec. 21, 1870," which volume is on the shelves 
of our own Society. 

On the 4th ot September, 1816, a celebration was held by 
the New York Historical Society k< of the 206th " (-07th) 
"anniversary of the discovery of New York by Hudson." 
Now the journal of Hudson's mate, Robert Juet, proves that 



11 

the day assigned by him to the event, was the Sept. 4th of new 
style, 1609 ; and it would be difficult to deny that Sept. 4 (N. 
S.), 1816, was the true anniversary. Some one will ask, u Is 
then the correct anniversary of an event of the 17th century 
to depend upon the question, whether new style or old style is 
used by the first narrator, or by the actor, or in the document ?" 
Of any such inquirer it may be asked in reply, " Why should 
it not?" And he is respectfully requested to show why it 
should not. The members of this Society will no doubt be 
most happy to undertake to read any remarks he may make 
iri order to show w T hy not, particularly if the remarks should 
be printed. The event to be celebrated by our anniversary 
occurred under English auspices. Juet sailed under Dutch 
colors. Why should not the nationality of the event settle the 
style? Why should not our records be allowed to give impulse 
and direction to their anniversaries, as well as Juet to his ? 
Suppose Juet had used double dating. He did, in fact, begin 
his journal with old style. And what about the days above 
mentioned, the Gunpowder Plot day, and others originating in 
events of the 17th century? Do they not furnish sound anal- 
ogies? Are we to turn the Parliamentary dates into new 
style? Can any one say that there were no corporate bodies 
brought into existence in the 17th century, with annual meet- 
ings held on the same nominal days after 1752 ? How many 
such bodies were created between 1582 and 1752 ? And what 
is the practice, as to similar anniversaries, from Maine to 
Georgia? How far should we, an English-speaking people, 
maintain, even in the calendar places of our anniversaries, the 
recollections of the history of the. mother country, and of her 
North American colonies, the recollections of her habits and 
customs, of her wise and unwise acts and omissions, of her 
strifes and affinities ? How far should we cast aside these rec- 
ollections, and endeavor to place our anniversaries of events, 
from 1582 to 1752, in the same position in the calendar which 
they would have occupied if all nations had at once adopted 
the Gregorian correction ? 



12 



APPENDIX. 
Act of Parliament, 24 G. 2, c. 23, A. D. 1751. 



An Act for Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for Correcting 
the Calendar now in Use. 

by ^ 5 m G e ° de 2 ^ Whereas the legal supputation of the Year of our Lord in 
c - 30 - that part of Great Britain called England, according to which 

the Year beginneth on the 25th day of March, hath been found 
by experience to be attended with divers Inconveniences, not 
only as it differs from the Usage of neighboring Nations, but also 
from the legal Method of Computation in that Part of Great 
Britain called Scotland, and from the common Usage through- 
out the whole Kingdom, and thereby frequent Mistakes are 
occasioned in the Dates of Deeds, and other Writings, and Dis- 
putes arise therefrom: And whereas the Calendar now in Use 
throughout all his Majesty's British Dominions, commonly 
called The Julian Calendar, hath been discovered to be erro- 
neous, by means whereof the Vernal or Spring Equinox, which 
at the Time of the General Council of Nice, in the Year of our 
Lord 325, happened on or about the 21st Day of March, now 
happens on the 9th or 10th Day of the same Month ; and the 
said Error is still increasing, and if not remedied, would, in 
Process of Time, occasion the several Equinoxes and Solstices 
to fall at very different Times in the Civil Year from what they 
formerly did, which might tend to mislead Persons ignorant of 
the said alteration: And whereas a Method of correcting the 
Calendar in such manner, as that the Equinoxes and Solstices 
may for the future fall nearly on the same nominal Days, on 
which the same happened at the Time of the said General 
Council, hath been received and established, and is now gener- 
ally practiced by almost all other Nations of Europe: And 
whereas it will be of general Convenience to Merchants, and 
other Persons corresponding with other Nations and Countries, 
and tend to prevent Mistakes and Disputes in or concerning 
the Dates of Letters, and Accounts, if the like Correction be 
received and established in his Majesty's Dominions: May it 
therefore please your Majesty, that it may be enacted, and be 
it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with 
the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 



13 

and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by Theoiasup- 
the Authority of the same, That in and throughout all his theY^ not 
Majesty's Dominions and Countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, J,° e b o f "flS 
and America, belonging or subject to the Crown of Great Dec -. 1751 - 
Britain; the said Supputation, according to which the Year 
of our Lord beginneth on the 25th Day of March, shall not be 
made use of from and after the last Day of December 1751 ; 
and that the first Day of January next following the said last Yeartocom- 

•^ ^ mcncp for 

Day of December shall be reckoned, taken, deemed and ac- the future, 
counted to be the first Day of the Year of our Lord 1752 ; and on l Jan ' 
the first Day of January which shall happen next after the 
first Day of January 1752 shall he reckoned, taken, deemed 
and accounted to be the first Day of the Year of our Lord 
1753 ; and so on, from Time to Time, the first Day of January 
in every Year, which shall happen in Time to come, shall be 
reckoned, taken, deemed and accounted to be the first Day of 
the Year; and that each new Year shall accordingly commence, 
and begin to be reckoned, from the first Day of every such 
Month of January next preceding the 25th Day of March, on 
which such Year would, according to the present Supputation, 
have begun or commenced: And that from and after the said £ he ^J 8 Jj 
first Day of January 1752, the several Days of each Month as now until 
shall go on, and be reckoned and numbered in the same order ; and P the day 
and the Feast of Easter, and other movable Feasts thereon de- JJ l0 ac«£n? 
pending, shall be ascertained according to the same Method, as ed }f. Se P*v 

i -it i t\ f c- « omitting 11 

they now are, until the second Day ot /September in tie said days. 
Year 1752 inclusive; and that the natural Day next immedi- 
ately following the said second Day of September, shall be 
called, reckoned and accounted to be the fourteenth Day of 
September, omitting for that Time only the eleven intermediate 
nominal Days of the common Calendar ; and that the several 
natural Days, which shall follow and sueceed next after the 
said fourteenth Day of September, shall be respectively called, 
reckoned and numbered forwards in numerical Order from the 
said fourteenth Day of September, according to the Order and 
Succession of Days now used in the present Calendar; and 
that all Acts, Deeds, Writings, Notes and other Instruments of 
what Nature or Kind soever, whether Ecclesiastical or Civil, 
Public or Private, which shall be made, executed or signed, 
upon or after the said 1st Day of January 1752, shall bear 
date according to the said new Method of Supputation ; and 
that the two fixed Terms of St. Hilary and St. Michael, in that Hilary ana 
part of Great Britain called England, and the Courts of Great S^m^S 
Sessions in the Counties Palatine, and in Wales, and also the Jj h35f* «n 
Courts of General Quarter-Sessons and General Session of the th ,*JJ , JJ no " 
Peace, and all other Courts of what Nature or Kind soever, 



14 

whether Civil, Criminal or Ecclesiastical, and all Meetings and 
Assemblies of any Bodies Politic or Corporate, either for the 
election of any Officers or Members thereof, or for any such 
Officers entering upon the Execution of their respective Offices, 
or for any other Purpose whatsoever, which by any Law, Stat- 
ute, Charter, Custom or Usage within this Kingdom, or within 
any other the Dominions or Countries subject or belonging to 
the Crown of Great Britain, are to be holden and kept on any 
fixed or certain Day of any Month, or on any Day depending 
courts hew upon the Beginning, or any certain Day of any Month (except 
martf^be such Courts as are usually holden or kept with any Fairs or 
excepted. Marts) shall, from Time to Time, from and after the said second 
Day of September, be holden and kept upon or according to 
the same respective nominal Days and Times whereon, or ac- 
cording to which the same are now to be holden, but which 
shall be computed according to the said new Method of num- 
bering and reckoning the Days of the Calendar as aforesaid ; 
that is to say, eleven Days sooner than the respective Days 
whereon the same are now holden and kept ; any Law, Statute, 
Charter, Custom or Usage, to the contrary thereof in any wise 
notwithstanding. 
Hundredth II. And for the continuing or preserving the Calendar or 

Years ex- . 

eept every Method of Reckoning, and computing the Days of the Year in 

dreMoTe the same regular Course, as near as may be, in all Times com- 

c ' omm ° n 365 ing ; Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That 

Says. the several Years of our Lord, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, 

or any other hundredth Years of our Lord, which shall happen 

in Time to come, except only every fourth hundredth Year of 

our Lord whereof the year of our Lord 2000 shall be the first, 

shall not be esteemed or taken to be Bissextile or Leap Years, 

but shall be taken to be common Years, consisting of 365 

Years Bis- Days, and no more ; and that the Years of our Lord 2000, 

days il00f 3GG 2400, 2800, and every other fourth hundred Year of our Lord, 

from the said Year of our Lord 2000 inclusive, and also all 

other Years of our Lord, which by the present Supputation 

are esteemed to be Bissextile or Leap Years, shall for the 

future, and in all Times to come, be esteemed and taken to be 

Bissextile or Leap Years, consisting of 366 Days, in the same 

Sort and Manner as is now used with respect'to every fourth 

Year of our Lord. 

III. And whereas according to the Rule prefixed to the 
Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, Easter- 
day is always the first Sunday after the first Full Moon which 
happens next after the one and twentieth Day of March, and 
if the Full Moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter-day is the 
Sunday after ; which rule was made in Conformity to the 



15 

Decree of the said General Council of Nice, for the Celebra- 
tion of the said Feast of Easter : And whereas the Method of 
computing the Full Moons now used in the Church of Eng- 
land, and according to which the Table to find Easter forever, 
prefixed to the said Book of Common Prayer, is formed, is by 
Process of Time become considerably erroneous : And whereas 
a Calendar, and also certain Tables and Rules for the fixing 
the true Time of the Celebration of the said Feast of Easter, 
and the finding the Times of the Full Moons on which the 
same dependeth, so as the same shall agree as nearly as may 
be with the Decree of the said General Council, and also with 
the Practice of foreign Countries, have been prepared, and are 
hereunto annexed; Be it therefore further enacted by the ^ t a h s ^ r m a n ^ 
Authority aforesaid, That the said Feast of Easter, or any of able feasts 
the movable Feasts thereon depending, shall, from and after ed according 
the said second Day of September, be no longer kept or ob- calendar" 6 ™ 
served in that Part of Great Britain called England, or in any Jjjjj' and 
other the Dominions or Countries subject or belonging to the 
Crow*h of Great Britain, according to the said Method of 
Supputation now used, or the said Table prefixed to the said 
Book of Common Prayer ; and that the said Table, and also 
the Column of Golden Numbers, as they are now prefixed to 
the respective Days of the Month in the said Calendar, shall 
be left out in all future Editions of the said Book of Common 
Prayer ; and that the said new Calendar, Tables and Rules 
hereunto annexed, shall be prefixed to all such future Editions 
of th^ said Book, in the Room and stead thereof; and that 
from and after the said second Day of September, all and every Feasts an(i 
the fixed Feast-days, Holy-days and Fast-days, which are now JJj*^JS|'^ 
kept and observed by the Church of England, and also the to th ? DBW 

i i T-\emii-- -i p Ti • i Calendar. 

several solemn Days or lhanksgiving, and or .basting and 
Humiliation, which by virtue of any Act of Parliament now 
in being, are, from Time to Time, to be kept and observed, 
shall be kept and observed on the respective Days marked for 
the Celebration of the same in the said new Calendar ; that is 
to say, On the same respective nominal Days on which the 
same are now kept and observed; but which according to the 
Alteration by this Act intended to be made as aforesaid, will 
happen eleven Days sooner than the same now do ; and that 
the said Feast of Easter, and all other movable Feasts thereon 
depending, shall, from Time to Time, be observed and cel- 
ebrated according to the said new Calendar, Tables and Rules 
hereunto annexed, in that Part of Great Britain called Eng- 
land, and in all the Dominions and Countries aforesaid, where- 
in the Liturgy of the Church of England now is, or hereafter 
shall be used; and that the two movable Terms of Easter and 



Courts of 



16 

Trinity, and all Courts of what Nature or Kind soever, and all 
Meetings and Assemblies of any Bodies Politic or Corporate, 
and all Markets, Fairs and Marts, Courts thereunto belonging, 
which by any Law, Statute, Charter, Custom or Usage are 
appointed, used or accustomed to be holden and kept at any 
movable Time or Times depending upon the Time of Easter, 
or any other such movable Feast as aforesaid, shall, from 
Time to Time, from and after the said second Day of Septem- 
ber, be holden and kept on such Days and Times whereon they 
shall respectively happen or fall, according to the happening 
or falling of the said Feast of Easter, or such other movable 
Feasts as aforesaid, to be computed according to the said new 
Calendar, Tables and Rules. 

IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, 
Exciter 1 That the several Meetings of the Court of Session, and Terms 
andMarS', fixed for the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, the April Meet- 
Marts t a be * n § °^ ^ ne Governor, Bailiffs and Commonalty of the Company 
held upon of Conservators of the Great Level of the Fens, and the hold- 
turaiDays. ing and keeping of all Markets, Fairs and Marts,, whether for 

the Sale of Goods or Cattle, or for the hiring of Servants, or 
for any other Purpose, which are either fixed to certain nom- 
inal Days of the Month, or depending upon the Beginning, or 
any certain Day of any Month, and all Courts incident or 
belonging to, or usually holden or kept with any such Fairs 
or Marts, fixed to such certain Times as aforesaid, shall not, 
from and after the said second Day of September, be continued 
upon, or according to the nominal Days of the Month, or the 
Time of the Beginning of any Month, to be computed accord- 
ing to the said new Calendar, but that from and after the said 
second Day of September, the said Courts of Session and Ex- 
chequer, the said April Meeting, and all such Markets, Fairs 
and Marts as aforesaid, and all Courts incident or belonging 
thereto, shall be holden and kept upon, or according to the 
same natural Days, upon or according to which the same 
should have been so kept or holden, in case this Act had not 
been made ; that is to say, eleven Days later than the same 
would have happened, according to the nominal Days of the 
said new Supputation of Time, by which the Commencement 
of each Month, and the nominal Days thereof, are anticipated 
or brought forward, by the Space of eleven Days ; anything 
in this act contained to the contrary thereof in any wise not- 
withstanding. 

V. And whereas according to divejjs Customs, Prescriptions 
and Usages, in certain Places within this Kingdom, certain 
Lands and Grounds are, on particular nominal Days and 
Times in the Year, to be opened for Common of Pasture, and 



17 

other Purposes ; and at other Times, the Owners and Occu- 
piers of such Lands and Grounds have a Right to inclose or 
shut up the same, for their own private Use ; and there is, in 
many Instances, a temporary and distinct Property and Right 
vested in different Persons, in and to many such Lands and 
Grounds, according to certain nominal Days and Times in the 
Year: And whereas the anticipating or bringing forward the 
said nominal Days and Times, by the Space of eleven Days, 
according to the said new Method of Supputation, might be 
attended with many Inconveniences ; Be it therefore further ^^JJ",^ 
declared, provided and enacted by the Authority aforesaid, and inclos - 
That nothing in this Act contained shall extend, or be con- not altered, 
strued to extend, to accelerate or anticipate the Days or Times 
for the opening, inclosing or shutting up any such Lands or 
Grounds as aforesaid, or the Days or Times on which any such 
temporary or distinct Property or Right in or to any such 
Lands or Grounds as aforesaid is to commence ; but that all 
such Lands and Grounds as aforesaid shall from and after the 
said second day of September be, from Time to Time, respect- 
ively opened, inclosed or shut up, and such temporary and dis- 
tinct Property and Right in and to such Lands and Grounds 
as aforesaid shall commence and begin upon the same natural 
Days and Times on which the same should have been so re- 
spectively opened, inclosed or shut up, or would have com- 
menced or begun in case this Act had not been made ; that is 
to say, eleven Days later than the same would have happened, 
according to the said new Account and Supputation of Time, 
so to begin on the said 14th Day of September as aforesaid. 

VI. Provided also, and it is hereby further declared and j£™ s e °^ of 
enacted, That nothing in this present Act contained shall Rents, An- 
extend, or be construed to extend, to accelerate or anticipate nui ies ' 
the Time of Payment of any Rent or Rents, Annuity or 
Annuities, or Sum or Sums of Money whatsoever, which shall 
become payable by Virtue or in Consequence of any Custom, 
Usage, Lease, Deed, Writing, Bond, Note, Contract or other 
Agreement whatsoever, now subsisting, or which shall be made, 
signed, sealed or entered into, at any Time before the said 14th 
Day of September, or which shall become payable by virtue of 
any Act or Acts of Parliament now in Force, or which shall 
be made before the said 14th Day of September, or the Time 
of doing any Matter or Thing directed or required by any 
such Act or Acts of Parliament to be done in relation thereto, 
or to accelerate the Payment of, or Increase the Interest of, 0r of I)cliv 
any such Sum of Money which shall become payable as afore- ery of Goods, 
said; or to accelerate the Time of the Delivery of any Goods, ment or Ex- 
Chattels, Wares, Merchandise or other Things whatsoever ; lSUSJao. 01 



18 

or the Time of the Commencement, Expiration or Determina- 
tion of any Lease or Demise of any Lands, Tenements or 
Hereditaments, or of any other Contract or Agreement what- 
soever ; or of the accepting, surrendering or delivering up the 
Possession of any such Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments ; 
or the Commencement, Expiration or Determination of any 
Annuity or Rent;* or of any Grant for any Term of Years, 
of what nature or kind soever, by Virtue or in Consequence 
or of attain- of any such Deed, Writing, Contract or Agreement; or the 
of g 2i th Yetrs| Time of the attaining the Age of one and twenty Years, or 
tered not al an y °^ ner Age requisite by any Law, Custom or Usage, Deed, 
Will or Writing whatsoever, for the doing any Act, or for any 
other Purpose whatsoever, by any Person or Persons now 
born, or who shall be born before the said 14th Day of Sep- 
tember ; or the Time of the Expiration or Determination of 
any Apprenticeship or other Service, by virtue of any Inden- 
ture, or of any articles under Seal, or by reason of any simple 
Contract or Hiring whatsoever ; but that all and every such 
Rent and Rents, Annuity and Annuities, Sum and Sums of 
Money, and the Interest thereof, shall remain and continue to 
be due and payable; and the Delivery of such Goods and 
Chattels, Wares and Merchandise, shall be made; and the 
said Leases and Demises of all such Lands, Tenements and 
Hereditaments, and the said Contracts and Agreements, shall 
be deemed to commence, expire and determine ; and the said 
Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments shall be accepted, sur- 
rendered and delivered up ; and the said Rents and Annuities, 
and Grants for any Term of Years, shall commence, cease and 
determine, at and upon the same respective natural Days and 
Times, as the same should and ought to have been payable or 
made, or would have happened, in case this Act had not been 
made ; and that no further or other Sum shall be paid or pay- 
able for the Interest of any Sum of Money whatsoever, than 
such interest shall amount unto, for the true number of nat- 
ural Days for which the principal Sum bearing such Interest 
shall continue due and unpaid ; and that no Person or Persons 
whatsoever shall be deemed or taken to have attained the said 

* A supplement is 25 Geo. 2, c. 30, sects. 1, 2. 3, which is the supple- 
ment mentioned at foot of p. 4. Sects. 2 and 3 provide that the times for 
doing " some " " things." such as paying rents, opening of commons, &c, 
if the same depend on any movable feast, shall be according to the new- 
calendar. The times of all the movable feasts depend in each year upon 
the time of Easter, which hud, before the Act, the 21st March (0. S.) as 
the leading element in its calculation, but now has the 21st March (N. S.). 
Sect. 4, and also the 24 George 2, c. 48, sect. 11, merely change the Lord 
Mayor's days. The 26 Geo. 2, c. 34, sect. 4, changes the time of the elec- 
tion for Mayor of Chester, in order to avoid interfering with a fair. 



19 

Age of one and twenty Years, or any other such Age as afore- 
said, or to have completed the Time of any such Service as 
aforesaid, until the full number of Years and Days shall be 
lapsed on which such Person or Persons respectively would 
have attained such Age, or would have completed the Time of 
such Service aforesaid, in case this Act had not been made; 
any Thing herein before contained to the contrary thereof in 
any wise notwithstanding. 



Bull of Greg or ij XIII. 



Among the very weighty cares of our Pastoral office, it is Preamble. 
not the least that those matters which were reserved to the 
Apostolic See by the Holy Council of Trent, may be brought, 
by Divine assistance, to an acceptable termination. 

1. Indeed the Fathers of that Council, whilst they had also cuunui of 
added the care of the Breviary to their other consideration, ^ e p fc ' Se8S ' 
yet being hindered by time, referred the whole matter by a 

decree of the same Council to the authority and judgment of 
the Roman Pontiff. 

2. And two things are especially contained in the Breviary, two things 
one of which embraces the divine prayers and praises to be IU BreT * 
used on feast days and work days, the other pertains to the 
annual recurrences, to be measured by the motion of the Sun 

and Moon, of Easter and of the feasts depending on it. 

3. And Pius V., of happy memory, our predecessor, took Const. 04. 
care that the former indeed should be completed, and pro- 
claimed it. 

4. But the latter, because assuredly it requires a suitable 
reformation of the Calendar, was long since, and very often, 
attempted by Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, but indeed could The 2.1 not 
not be completed and brought to an end up to this time, for con,pe 
the reason that the plans for amending the Calendar, which 

were proposed by persons skilled in the celestial motions, were, 
on account of the great and almost inextricable difficulties 
which an emendation of this kind always involved, neither 
never-failing, nor did they preserve the ancient ecclesiastical 
rites untouched (which thing was above all to be cared for in 
this business). 



20 

5. Whilst we, therefore, relying upon the stewardship en- 
trusted by God to us, unworthy as we are, were occupied with 
this scheme and care, there was brought to us by our valued 
son Antonius Lilius, doctor of arts and medicine, a book which 
Aloysius. his brother german, had formerly written, in which, 

Epacts de- by a certain new cycle of Epacts devised by him, and adapted 
to a fixed rule of the true Golden Number, and accommodated 
to any length of the Solar year, he shows that all the things 
which have fallen into confusion in the Calendar can, by a plan, 
constant and enduring through all ages, be so restored that the 
Calendar itself may be seen to be never subject to any change 
in the future. A few years since, we sent this new plan for 
restoring the Calendar, contained in a small volume, to Christian 
princes and very celebrated universities, to the end that the 
business which is common to all might be superintended by the 
counsel of all, when they with one accord answered the things 
which we especially desired ; we, induced by the consent of 
them all, summoned to the Holy City, for the amendment of 
the Calendar, men well skilled in these matters, whom we had 
long before chosen from the principal nations of the Christian 
world. After they had bestowed much time and diligence 
upon this study, and had compared together cycles, as well of 
the ancients as of the moderns, which were collected from all 
parts and most diligently examined, they by their own judg- 
ment, and that of learned men who wrote concerning these 
matters, selected this cycle of Epacts in preference to the others, 
and they added to it some matters which, by accurate ex- 
amination, may be seen especially to pertain to the perfection 
of the Calendar. % 

Three things 6. Considering therefore that for the proper celebration of 
ecessary. ^ e f east f Easter according to the determinations of the holy 
Fathers and of the ancient Pontiffs, particularly of Pius I. and 
Victor I , and also of the oecumenical council of Nice and of 
others, three necessary things are to be connected and deter- 
mined; first, a fixed place for the vernal equinox; next a 
correct position for the fir.-t full moon (XIV Lunae pritnae ' 
mensis, quse) which either happens upon the very day of the 
equinox or follows next after it ; finally every first Sunday 
which follows on the same full (14th) moon; we have provided 
not only that the vernal equinox should be restored to its 
former seat, from which it has, since the Council of Nice, 
receded about ten days, and that the 14th Paschal should be 
restored to its place, from which it is at this time four days, 
and more, distant, but also that a mode and reckoning should 
be furnished, by which care is taken that for the future the 
equinoctial and the 14th moon shall never be moved from their 
proper seats. 



21 

7. To the end therefore that the vernal equinox, which was 
fixed by the Fathers of the council of Nice on the 12th before 
the Calends of April,* may be restored to the -same place, we 
prescribe and command that ten days be dropped from the Ten da y s 
month of October 1582, inclusively from the 3d before the loppec 
Nones to the day before the Ides,f and that the day which 
follows the feast of St. Francis, usually celebrated on the 4th 
before the Nones, J be called the Ides of October, § and upon 

it, let the feast of Sts. Dionysius, Rusticus, and Eleutherius be 
celebrated with the commemoration of St. Marcus, Pope and 
Confessor, and of Sts. Sergius, Bacchus, Marcellus and Apu- 
leus, martyrs. Further, on the 17th before the Calends of 
November, || which day follows next, let there be celebrated the 
feast of St. Callistus, Pope and martyr. Then on the 16th 
before the Calends of November Tf let there be said the office 
and mass of the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, the Sunday 
letter being changed from G- to C. Finally on the 15th before 
the Calends of November ** let there be kept the feast day of 
St. Luke the Evangelist, after which let the remaining feast 
days be observed successively, as they are set forth in the 
calendar. 

8. But lest injury should happen to any one from this our caution to 
subtraction of ten days, because it affects annual or monthly judges - 
guarantees, it will be the duty of judges, in controversies 
which shall arise upon this matter, to take account of the said 
subtraction, by adding ten other days at the end of any guar- 
antee. 

9. Then lest the equinoctial should hereafter recede from Leap year, 
the 12th before the Calends of April, ft we decree that the 
intercalary day shall be continued (as is customary) in every 
fourth year, except in centesimal years ; although these have 
always heretofore been Bissextile, as indeed we decree the year 

1600 to be, nevertheless, after that year, the centesimal years, 
which will successively follow, shall not all be Bissextile, but 
in every 400 years, every first three centesimal years shall 
pass without an intercalary day, but every fourth centesimal 
year shall be Bissextile, so that the year 1700, 1800, 1900, 
shall not be Bissextile. But in the year -000, the intercalary 
day, as also the same order of intermitting and intercalating 
the Bissextus, shall be inserted, February having 29 days. 

* On March 2\. 
f From Oct. 5 to Oct. 15. 

X The 4th before the Nones was Oct. 4, and the day which followed it 
was the 3d before the Nones, or Oct. 5. 

I Oct. 15. || On Oct. 16. fl On Oct. 17. 

** On Oct. 18. ff From March 21. 



22 

cycle of 10. To the end also that the Paschal full moon (XIV Pas- 
SiKd Sl for chalis) may be rightly found, and also that the days of the 
ber d( in Nu t™e moon > to De learned each day from the martyrology in accord- 
Caiendar. ance with the ancient custom of the church, may be correctly 
declared to the faithful people, we decree, that, the golden 
number being removed from the calendar, the cycle of Epacts 
shall be substituted in its place, which, directed (as we have 
said) to a fixed rule of the golden number, has the effect that 
the new moon and the Paschal full moon (XIV Paschalis) shall 
always retain their true places. And this manifestly appears 
by the exposition of our calendar, in which are set forth, indeed, 
Paschal tables, according to the former usage of the church, in 
order that the sacred feast of Easter may be found with greater 
certainty and ease. 
And the old 11. Finally, since, partly owing to the ten days omitted from 
acoomnSia 1 - 6 tne month" of October of the year 1582, (which year ought 
metbod a onn- P ro P er ly to De called the year of the correction), partly owing 
tercaiating. indeed to the three days not to be intercalated in any period of 
400 years, it is unavoidable that the cycle of Dominical letters 
of 28 years, used to this day in the Roman Church, should be 
interrupted ; we decree that there shall be substituted in its 
place the same cycle of 26 years, accommodated, by the same 
Lilius, not only to the said reckoning for intercalating the Bis- 
sextus in centesimal years, but also to any length of the solar 
year ; and from which the Dominical letter by aid of the solar 
* cycle can be found, for ever, as easily as heretofore, as is ex- 
plained in the proper canon. 
The reform- 12. Therefore, that we may accomplish what properly de- 
approved. ar volves upon the principal Pontiff, we do, by this our decree, 
approve the calendar, now, by the great benignity of God 
towards his church, corrected and completed, and we have 
ordered it to be printed, and when printed, to be published at 
Rome together with the martyrology. 
Ana not to 13. And that it may be kept, everywhere and in whatever 
with,out mt h d - land, incorrupt, and free from mistakes and errors, we prohibit 
pealed Re " a ^ P rmters sojourning in our dominion, and in that mediately 
or immediately subject to S. R. E.,* under penalty of forfeit- 
ure of the books and of 100 golden ducats, to be ipso facto 
applied to the Apostolic chamber ; and all others in any part 
of the world, under penalty of excommunication, submitted to 
the declaration of our judgment, from daring or presuming, 
without our license, to print or publish, or in any way to take 
charge of the Calendar or Martyrology, either together or 
separately. 

* The holy Roman church. 



23 



14. And we have removed and do altogether abolish the 
ancient Calendar, and we decree that all patriarchs, primates, 
archbishops, bishops, abbots, and others, heads of churches, 
shall introduce the new Calendar (to which, indeed, the reckon- 
ing of the Martyrology is adapted) for the recital of the divine 
offices and the celebration of feasts, in their respective churches, 
monasteries, convents, orders, employments, and dioceses, and 
shall use it only, as well they as all others, presbyters and 
clergy, secular and regular, and of either sex, and also soldiers, 
and all the faithful in Christ ; the use of which shall begin 
after the ten days omitted from the month of October of the 
year 1582, but to those who inhabit regions so remote that 
they cannot receive notice of these letters before the time pre- 
scribed by us, it shall be allowed to make the same change, in 
the mode set forth by us a little above, but nevertheless in the 
same month of October of the following year, 1583, or of 
another year, namely when these our letters shall first reach 
them, as will be more fully explained in our Calendar of the 
year of the correction. 

15. And by the authority given to us by God, we exhort 
and require our very dear son in Christ, Rudolph, illustrious 
king of the Romans, emperor elect, and others, kings, princes, 
and republics, and we command them that, with the same zeal 
with which they hastened to us in order that we might accom- 
plish this so illustrious a work, nay, even with greater zeal, 
for the preservation of concord among Christian nations, in 
celebrating feasts, they should both themselves adopt this our 
Calendar and should cause it to be religiously adopted and in- 
violably observed by all peoples subject to them. 

16. But because it would be difficult for the present letters to 
be transported to all places of the Christian world, we command 
them to be published and posted on the gates of the Basilica of 
the Prince of the Apostles,* and in the field of the Campus Florae, 
and we command, that to copies of these letters, when printed, 
and added and prefixed to volumes of the Calendar and Mar- 
tyrology, or subscribed by the hand of a public tabellion,f and 
sealed with the seal of an appointed person in ecclesiastical 
dignity, there shall be given, in every nation and place, the 
same undoubted faith as could be wholly given to the original 
letters, if produced. 

17. Therefore it shall not be lawful for any one whomsoever 
to infringe this part of our precepts, commands, statutes, will, 
approbation, prohibition, annulling, abolition, exhortation, and 



To be used 
after Oct. 10, 
1582 & 1583. 



Princes ex- 
horted to ac- 
cept the re- 
formed cal- 
endar. 



Publication. 



Penal 

tion. 



* St. Peter. 

f A secretary or notary under the Roman empire. 



24 

demand, or, by a rash attempt, to proceed in opposition to it 
in practice. And if any shall presume to attempt this, he 
shall know that he will incur the indignation of Omnipotent 
God and of the blessed Peter and Paul, His Apostles. 

Dated at Tusculum, in the year of the Dominical Incarnation 
1582, in the Sixth before the Calends of March,* in the tenth 
year of our Pontificate. 



* On the 24th of February. The year of the Incarnation is said to have 
been introduced by the Abbe Denis le Petit about the beginning of the 
sixth century, and it is said to be the year known to us as the Old Style 
year. 



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